Other January Events

Now that we have the 2 month sleep issue on the way to improvements, I am sure there will be more bumps along the road, especially when I return to work February 10th. Olivia continues to grow and explore her world!

At her 2 month appointment, in early January, she weighed 10 pounds 15 ounces an increase of about a pound.  She also grew 3 inches in a month to 24 inches long!  She is in the 49th percentile for weight and 94th for height.  We do not go back to the pediatrician until March for the 4 month check up, but lately she is looking so much bigger to us!

This month she also enjoyed a playdate with Caitlin and Clara Bossle, going to Tyler's basketball games, a visit from Gram and Grandpa Puryear, visiting her cousin Brayden, and being baby sat by Aunt Cathi and  Uncle Randy, and of course Grandma and Grandpa.   She is discovering her toys more and is more fascinated to watch and observe what is going on.  Livy is also grabbing at everything along with puting everything in her mouth.

Here are some picture highlights and for more images of the month, check out the Picasa Web Link on the right column:

 

 

 

January Sleep Issues

To say we started the new Decade with a bang is an understatement!  As we came home from a wonderful Christmas in Ocean City, the reality of having a baby began to settle in.  The first month Olivia was an angel and such an easy baby.  Well when Dan returned to school the newborn bliss gave way to an overtired, cranky little girl!  Olivia was on a bit of a schedule and by that I mean she was eating every 3 hours and would take about 4 naps daily.  Usually a shorter one in the morning, which allowed me to shower, a longer one in the late morning and a longer one in the afternoon.  She would go to bed around 7:30/8:00.  I was all set to get right back into the swing of things on that Monday morning in January and Livy Loo had a different thought! I rocked her to sleep and put her down in the pack n play, like I have since she was days old, and five minutes later she was wide awake and crying!  Not knowing what else to do I picked her up and tried again...with no success.  I began to get a bit frustrated because she was clearly tired but would not stay asleep when I put her down.  So I called the pediatrician and the nurse at the office told me I should not be rocking her to sleep because she was not learning to fall asleep on her own.  She recommended I should let her cry it out for five minutes.  Well I tried that and honestly that only made her more frantic and me more frustrated!  I was in tears and exhausted when Dan came home and Olivia was a mess.  She was falling asleep while I was feeding her and as a result not getting enough food.  So after a frantic call to Dr. Lancaster on her cell phone she told Dan to take Olivia for a drive to settle her down.  I stayed home to sleep and after an hour she was passed out in her car seat.  Dan came in the room and put her down and she slept in the car seat for 9 hours that night!  It was a LONG day!

The next day was her 2 month check up and we talked to our doctor about what we needed to do.  Her answer was at this age you cannot spoil your child and do whatever it took to get her to sleep.  So after an exhausting week of trying to put her down to sleep, I finally gave in and let her sleep in the swing, the bouncer, any place that would not wake her up when she fell asleep.  It was a LONG week and Dan was not a happy guy coming home.  Several nights I handed her to Dan and went to bed.

We slowly became a bit more rested and went to visit our daycare women, Sharon.  On that day, I realized that Miss Sharon would not be able to rock Livy to sleep every time she need to sleep or hold her all day.  So I became a woman on a mission to help get over this sleeping hump.  I started to read a book that was recommended to me by several mothers, Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Babies. What I realized and started watching for was signs of when Livy was getting tired.  The book also made me realize that she really can only handle about 2 hours of awake time before she needs a nap.  While reading the book we also realized that we were keeping her up too late at night and she needed an earlier bed time!  We were skeptical at first, but tired and that night she slept from 6:30-3:30!  The book also said to keep the routine consistent with puting the child to sleep.  So we now rock her for only 10 minutes, which is less than our 20-25 minutes, and put her in her crib.  There have been a few times we let her cry for 5 minutes and went in to calm her down, but overall it has been much improved and she is a much happier baby!  I have enjoyed this too because she is currently in her own room and sleeping most nights until 3:30/4:00am.  It has been nice because Dan and I have  some time together in the evenings.

Although the first few weeks of January were challenging and emotional we have come out of it as a stronger couple and more confident in taking care of Olivia.

Olivia's First Christmas

It has been forever since our last update and we  have been so busy with Christmas, New Years, and a bit of a sleeping issue.  Here is the Olivia's First Christmas recap!

To recap Christmas, Olivia had quite the busy first Christmas.  She had three celebrations and two adorable little dresses for each!  Our first Christmas was with the Hart family on Sunday December 20th.  She was a good little girl and enjoyed lots of floor time with her big Cousin Tyler.  There is a hilarious picture of the two of them on the floor with pacifiers in their mouths! She was spoiled with presents and love!

The second Christmas celebration was with Dan and I.  On Saturday before Christmas a huge snowstorm came through and dumped over 2 feet of snow in Maryland.  Olivia enjoyed the snow and when I took her outside to "play" she fell asleep with the snow falling on her face!  As a result, Howard County Public Schools closed for 3 days and Dan was home with us!  So on Tuesday night we celebrated our family Christmas.  We had a nice dinner and opened presents.  Olivia received a first Christmas ornament from both myself and Dan.  In the middle of our celebration Olivia had a bit of a fussy spell, crying for 30 minutes, so that put a memorable damper in the evening.  Regardless it was a fun evening!  We will always remember our first family celebration!

Her third Christmas celebration included a five day, four night trip to Ocean City!  She was a joy in the car, sleeping the entire ride, and we successfully fit all of her things and our things in the car for the trip!  We are lucky her Gram and Grandpa Puryear had lots of baby gear to help lessen our load.

In Ocean City she met her cousin Emma and her Aunt Jill and Uncle Steve.  Emma loved her cousin and was such a big help with her, bringing Baby Olivia her blankets, pacifier, and toys!  In March Emma will become a big sister and I know she will be wonderful.  A funny story though, one morning Jill was holding Olivia during breakfast and Emma come over after a few minutes and told Jill,  "Uncle Dan  needs to hold Baby Olivia." Jill laughed and made room for Emma on her lap with Olivia!  It was adorable. 

On Christmas Eve Olivia had her first church outing, attending Gram and Grandpa Puryear's  children program.  The music was lovely and Olivia was quiet the entire time...quite the little angel!  Christmas morning Dan and I were awake before Olivia and when we finally heard  her we peeked over at the pack n play to see her laying there sucking her thumb!  We told her Santa had come and it was time to celebrate!  Yeah, she had no idea what was going on, but she gave us a smile. 

Most of Christmas morning she spent kicking around on the floor and opening Christmas presents.  The Puryear family has a tradition of opening Sleigh Presents after dinner, a tradition dating back to when Lee was a child.  Olivia spent most of sleigh in the swing, sleeping, but at one point Emma was getting upset and started crying and then on the opposite side of the table Olivia started crying.  I started laughing and said, "well this is certainly a new era of sleigh."  It was a laughable moment and capped off a lovely Christmas day!


The rest of the week we had a nice time hanging with family and Olivia even had her first trip to the OC Boardwalk!  Of course she slept in the stroller most of the time, but I am sure this summer she will have more fun visiting it! 

We had a lovely Christmas and Olivia received many lovely gifts.  We feel extremely blessed this year having Olivia in our lives and that is honestly the best present we have received in years!